Cutting deep dados

Building a workbench. Plans call for a dado (4 of them) to
hold cross braces at the ends. The dado cut is to be
1 1/2 inches deep by 3 inches wide. My 6 inch dado
with the adjustable dial (Freud) can only cut 1 inch deep
or less.
Suggestions?
Thought of the following solutions but hope there might
be others:
1) use regular sawblade and make the cuts (tedious as the
dados have to be 3 inches wide), by going back and
forth over the length of the cut.
2) use a router
3) use the Freud dado and use a router for
the last 1/2 inch.
4) chop them out - saw and chisel - ala mortise/tenon.
5) buy a 8" dado set. Expensive for a good set. I'd like
to see if there is a $50 solution first.
- How about it? Is there a good way of doing this?
MJ

What I have done in a similar situation is to use the table saw. An
accurate cut on each side then multiple cuts in between approximately
1/4 to 1/3 inches apart. Break out the strips with a chisel then
level the bottom with a chisel. Quick and cheap. Or quick and dirty.

If he only goes 1" on the dadoes, it's going to have a catastrophic
failure the very first time he builds a battleship on it.
--
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.
-- Sophocles

I built a workbench out of 2X4. It has a piece of 2' X 4' plywood for
the top, dado into a 2 X 4 half lapped frame.
Where I was concerned about strenght, I cut the 1/2" dados into both
pieced of the 2X4 joint. This gave me an inch overlap for the joint.
For reference it is on wheels and is the exact height of my table saw,
so it can be used as an outfeed for the saw.
I glued and screwed all joints.
I made the it about 15 years old, and still as stable as the day I
finished it.
One other thing, I varished it, instead of painting as my brothers
thought I should do. It has darkened in that time but looks as good as
it did when I finished it.
One other thing, I used good hard rubbe wheels. But over the years,
they have developed flat spots. from the tools that I keep on the two
shelves, and the end cabinets. If I was to re wheel or build an new
bench, I would use steel wheels or ones with minimum rubber tire on steel.

Only 4 dadoes? Even if they're 3 inches wide, if the workpiece is of a
size that can be more or less easily manipulated on a tablesaw, you can
cut them all out with regular blade in less time than it takes to set
up a router.

Agreed: Even if it required making a sled with holders to slide it thru the
table saw. Sleds are extremely handy and with the right configuation, almost
a turn-key solution. Only one caveat: It's best of the saw table has
T-slots.

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